The objective of the FDA-NARMS cooperative agreement program (CAP) is to build a network of 30 laboratories distributed throughout the United States to determine the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among animal enteric bacteria (Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli and enterococci) isolated from samples of chicken, ground turkey, ground beef and pork chops purchased from grocery stores. Our proposed portion of this CAP grant would be to determine the prevalence of antibiotic resistance among these microbes isolated from retail meat samples from South Dakota and North Dakota stores. Eighty retail meat samples will be purchased each month for five years from five sites in South Dakota and North Dakota. The samples will be obtained by the South Dakota Animal Industry Board Meat Inspection service in South Dakota and North Dakota Meat and Poultry Inspection Program in North Dakota. These retail meat samples will be sent to the Food Safety Microbiology (FSM) Laboratory in the Animal Disease Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at South Dakota State University. All samples will be tested for the presence of Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli and Enterococci using established food safety analysis protocols. The microbes isolated from these food samples will be shipped to FDA-CVM for analysis of antibiotic resistance profiles. These results will be communicated back to the FSM lab for dissemination to the South Dakota Department of Health, North Dakota Department of Health, South Dakota Animal Industry Board, North Dakota Board of Animal Health, Cooperative Extension Services, Consumers, and Producers.